The True Hearts Festival
The Fedorian True Hearts Festival also known as the Feast of Two Lovers is a Holiday celebrated on the fourteenth day of February. It holds its origins with the elves of Pregynt who celebrated the changing of the seasons, believing that this was the day that Gamma wakes from her slumber to rekindle her love of Langar and the life there. To the elves it is also a day remembering the last day of Permafrost winter that the Wintry God Rieliah visited upon the world in times long past. While it's origins may be Elven, the celebration in the Fedorian Empire is much more focused around a legend of two lovers. Separated by the cold of the winter, they were only able to meet once the snow and frost had cleared. The legend has it that they both grew tired of waiting and set out in the winter snow to try and reach one another. They both became terribly lost, not being able to find the roads or paths in the snow. They were both in serious trouble, until they both saw the same tree up ahead. The tree wasn't any old tree, it was a great and powerful oak, and it seemed that spring itself was radiating from it. They found each other there and were saved. Festivities Traditionally a great festival and feast is held in Earnwold in the merchant district with members of the city mages guild being brought in to warm the city and make the weather more temperate and bearable if needed. It is a time for merriment and for the people of the city. The various merchants will often set up booths with wares or simple festival games, many themed around a celebration of romantic love. Many of Earnwold's citizens gather for this celebration, exchanging wax and paper hearts with those they are close to, or just for fun among friends, these tokens will often have messages of encouragement or professions of love. The exchange of gifts is not only limited to paper and wax hearts though, many more expensive gifts are exchanged, often by established couples where jewelry or other fine things are often common among the more wealthy citizens. The Crown District Park is also opened up to the public during the festival, where the nobles of the city provide a place of the citizens to meet and dance. Live music is the norm with bards and performers coming from all over the empire for a chance to play at the festival. In Other Regions While it may take other forms, the holiday is often celebrated in other places around the world, sometimes in different ways. Kah'Alune The holiday is actually somewhat different for the desert nation. It is a day of mourning for love lost. They stay in and view the decadent festivities of The Fedorian Empire with disdain. Pregynt, City of Grace The Holiday is still celebrated, though it takes on a more somber tone at the start. The elves making a processional march towards the great tree where a reenactment of the great winter is done, the elves remembering the lives lost in that time before a festival similar to Earnwold's begins, it is however less themed in love and more about the revival of nature and life. Category:Event